Sensor Bar Communications Discovery

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Last night, I tried using the Wii with a Wii Remote synchronised with that unit, knowing that I played on the Wii earlier in the daytime. The pointer never appeared, although the button clicks were registering. Soon after, I looked in the back of the system to try unplugging and reconnecting the sensor bar, but discovered it was not plugged in to begin with—it was plugged into the Wii U, which was currently off.

Now, I did not recall switching it over to the Wii U, especially since I couldn't even think of a reason why I would need to do so that day. Just to test a strange hypothesis, I turned on the Wii U, since it was on when I used the Wii last. To my surprise, the pointer on the Wii appeared and was reading the signals that were being sent to the Wii U!

Somehow, it seems that the input data received by the Wii U can be broadcasted and read by the Wii. I tried the reverse setup, and that seems to work, too. For those who didn't know, this could be a nice alternative for those who don't want to swap sensor bar connections.

I'm not sure how many have known this, but there don't seem to be any topics about it here.

TL;DR: The Wii will accept motion data when the sensor bar is plugged into the Wii U and vice-versa, provided that both systems are turned on.

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No signals are being sent to the sensor bar. It's just a few lights. The controller sees the lights. Any sensor-bar-related data is sent over the link between the console and the controller. The only reason the sensor bar needs to be plugged in is to light the lights, which obviously the Wii U can do. No data is being "broadcast" by the Wii U to the Wii.

No signals are being sent to the sensor bar. It's just a few lights. The controller sees the lights. Any sensor-bar-related data is sent over the link between the console and the controller. The only reason the sensor bar needs to be plugged in is to light the lights, which obviously the Wii U can do. No data is being "broadcast" by the Wii U to the Wii.

The sensor bar is nothing but a set of IR lights, as mentioned above. So, you could substitute any other infrared source in place of the sensor bar. I've read that people have gotten it to function simply using two candles.

The sensor bar is nothing but a set of IR lights, as mentioned above. So, you could substitute any other infrared source in place of the sensor bar. I've read that people have gotten it to function simply using two candles.

Yes it will work with two candles. I forgot my sensor bar one time when taking my wii to a friends house and we just used candles.

Sorry, but they're right (and this is very old news that should be common knowledge by now).

Have you ever seen the third party wireless sensor bars that are available? There are a bunch of them out there. And all they're doing that's different from the sensor bar that comes with the system is that they're using batteries to power the infrared lights instead of using a wire to tap into the system's power.

The camera in the remote sees IR light sources (which is why candles and glare from the sun and xmas lights can interfere with the pointer) and runs an algorithm to make sense of the data. The wireless communication in the remote transmits this data, along with data from the buttons and motion sensors, to the system that it is synced to.

"This ain't like fieldwork. You never have to notarize a man and kill him in triplicate. Well... Almost never..." - Ruby

The sensor bar is nothing but a set of IR lights, as mentioned above. So, you could substitute any other infrared source in place of the sensor bar. I've read that people have gotten it to function simply using two candles.

Yes it will work with two candles. I forgot my sensor bar one time when taking my wii to a friends house and we just used candles.

Wow, gotta try this sometime.

Official Light Director of the NDF/KDF/PDF/IDFPlaying: Cave Story (3ds), Fire Emblem: Awakening (Soon).

To clarify a bit more, the process is the other way around from what Sony ended up doing when they introduced the Move. Sony places a camera on the TV and uses it to track a reference point (the colored ball on the end of the Move wand). Nintendo places a set of reference points on the TV and uses a camera on the end of the Wii remote to track them.

Before Sony did that, someone had actually used the Wii remote and sensor bar to create a demo for something called head tracking. He put the remote on the TV and he attached a sensor bar to his head, and he used the data he got out of this to control the camera angle of the display on the screen so it looked like he was peering through a window into a 3D world.

"This ain't like fieldwork. You never have to notarize a man and kill him in triplicate. Well... Almost never..." - Ruby

Huh. Well, I never knew this. Everyone keeps talking about how they have to switch their connections back and forth. I had no idea that the sensor bar needed to be plugged in ONLY to provide power to it.

Visit my YouTube channel for video game music sequences, remixes, and originals by yours truly!http://www.youtube.com/PeachToadstool

No signals are being sent to the sensor bar. It's just a few lights. The controller sees the lights. Any sensor-bar-related data is sent over the link between the console and the controller. The only reason the sensor bar needs to be plugged in is to light the lights, which obviously the Wii U can do. No data is being "broadcast" by the Wii U to the Wii.

Yep, the sensor bar isn't an input device. It's just a bunch of LEDs that the Wii Remote can see. The Wii Remote uses these lights to tell where it's pointing and then IT sends the data back to the console. The sensor bar just plugs into the console so it's getting power.

Also, this is why whenever anyone tells you anything about moving the sensor bar as a response to complaints about the motion controls not working, they are an idiot who has no idea what they're talking about and should not be listened to. The sensor bar is just reference points for the pointer functionality of the Wii Remote, it has absolutely nothing to do with motion sensing. That's all done by the accelerometers and gryoscope (if using WM+) in the controller itself.

"Jak and Daxter does not have a sequel so that doesn't prove anything." - DesperateMonkey